Miracle at Haneda: Passengers describe terror and relief after fiery Japan Airlines collision

CNN —

When Japan Airlines flight 516 touched down at Tokyo’s Haneda airport carrying hundreds of people on Tuesday it erupted into a terrifying fireball.

The Airbus A350 passenger plane had collided with a coast guard aircraft on the runway – killing five people – and the crew had just minutes to ensure all passengers were evacuated before flames consumed the entire plane.

As smoke rapidly filled the cabin, flight attendants used megaphones to calm and corral anxious passengers, who escaped through three exits on emergency slides.

All 379 people on JAL flight 516, including eight children under the age of two, were safely evacuated – a feat that surprised aviation experts and has been described as miraculous by some on board.

“I heard an explosion about 10 minutes after everyone and I got off the plane,” 28-year-old passenger Tsubasa Sawada told Reuters. “I can only say it was a miracle, we could have died if we were late.”

Japan Airlines said four of its passengers were taken to hospital, but the worst injury reported was that one person sustained “bruising.”

Five of the six crew members died on the second aircraft, a De Havilland Canada DHC-8, according to Japan’s transport minister, Tetsuo Saito. Public broadcaster NHK said the plane’s captain was in a critical condition.

Japan Airlines is taking part in the investigation to determine who is responsible for the deadly crash, its senior vice president of corporate safety and security, Tadayuki Tsutsumi, told reporters.

The Japan Airlines plane is gutted by fire on a runway of Tokyo's Haneda Airport on January 2, 2024.

The airline said its crew had been cleared to land by air traffic control before the collision. Audio from LiveATC.net appears to detail the crew